The present object of the invention relates as stated in its title to a climate control device which is particularly suited to refrigeration of all types of bottles, such as wine, bubbly wine as cava, champagne, or similar.
It is well known that conservation of wine, cava, champagne or any similar products requires stable temperature conditions and stillness, alteration of which conditions reduces the quality of the wine stored due to acceleration of ageing or oxidation processes.
It is equally well known that the storage and conservation temperature for red wines is approximately between 13 xc2x0 C. and 16xc2x0 C. such ideal conservation conditions being found in wine cellars. whose great advantage derives from their stable year-round temperatures.
Conservation of other types of wine, such as white wines, champagne or cava is substantially different from that of red wines and they must thus be conserved and stored at substantially lower temperatures, which cannot be obtained in natural caves or cellars, and which must be obtained artificially by using refrigerators not specifically designed to contain these products, but which are also meant for other functions such as conserving food. soft drinks, etc.
Likewise, it has been observed that storage of wine in wine cellars is not ideal for their conservation, firstly because the standard arrangement of the bottles is to stack them, so that labels are difficult to see, resulting in the types of wine, years, etc. not being known, and secondly because placing the bottle horizontally causes the cork to soak and thus it does not breathe, causing over time a loss in the quality of the product contained in the bottle.
German Patent DE-4 233 172 is known that relates to a temperature control device made up by a cooling producing element made by a PELTIER cell that convey by transmission its temperature to a metallic piece and thereafter to the bottle which comes into contact with said piece, the cooling or heating conveyance to the bottle been effected by transmission and in individual manner.
European Patent EP-0 066 005 is also known that relates to a bottle exhibitor that permits the fastening of the bottle through its neck and in an inclined manner.
In order to solve these problems it is proposed that a set of goals must be met which tend to improve storage and conservation conditions of the wines during lengthy periods of time without altering their conservation conditions.
The primary object of the invention is to constitute a climate control device and container for such products as wines, bubbly wines as champagne or cava and similar wines, etc. This cupboard must as a first requirement be provided with well insulated walls so that its interior will not be affected by variations in the outside temperature. For this purpose a sandwich type construction has been adopted, consisting of internal and external walls, which are visible, and with a noble wood finish, without prejudice of any other finish, with a sufficiently thick insulation panel provided between these walls, so that the coefficient of thermal transmission at the walls of said container is very small.
This type of insulation is also provided in the front access doors of the cupboard, which shall also have this sandwich type configuration.
The insulating material parts are placed in the inside of this sandwich type construction in a non-rigid manner, avoiding a rigid attachment or gluing, since thermal expansions due to outside temperature changes would cause a rupture of the outer part or at least cracks to appear, thus considerably affecting the insulation performance of the climate control device.
In order to refrigerate the inside of the climate control device has been chosen a Peltier cell system, widely known in the state of the art, with the cooling faces of said cells placed in the inside of the cupboard, thus refrigerating it, with the opposite face where heat is produced being provided with means for dissipating such heat, aided or not by the corresponding fan which forces air to pass through said dissipater and therefore causing the cooling of the Peltier cell.
Similarly to what takes place in the heat dissipation face, the inside of the cupboard may be provided with on or more fans which even out the temperature of the container, preventing the air inside from remaining static and so considerable temperature differences from appearing, although the design of this device is so optimised that these temperature differences would not likely appear inside-said device.
In order to control the temperature, a thermostat is provided inside the closet which can be adjusted at will by the user, which allows to keep the temperature constant as preset by the user, from a temperature of only a few degrees Celsius for white or sparkling wines such as cava or champagne, to higher temperatures around 13xc2x0 C. or 16xc2x0 C. for red wines, or even at higher temperatures.
The bottles are arranged so that their labels can be seen perfectly, set in quincunxes. Likewise, each bottle remains independent of the rest by their individual location inside the closet or bottle rack, joining the bottle necks to the rack so that the rack consists of a set of orifices placed in quincunxes with a diameter slightly greater than that of the necks of the bottles. This arrangement also ensures that due to this slight clearance the bottle rests with an inclination of approximately 5xc2x0, so that the wine or content. of the bottle partially impregnates the cork leaving another part of the cork dry. so that it can be aired.
In order to aid a better distribution of the temperature inside the volume, upon placing the aforementioned bottle rack between the volume itself and the Peltier cooling cell, the bottle set is divided into independent partitions with large enough separations between them to allow air to circulate between them.
Each component part of the bottle container, although adapted to contain any number of bottles has been preferably arranged as two rows, providing 23orifices so that two dozen bottles, in other words two cases adding up to twenty-four bottles can be stored, save one bottle which would be used to sample the lot. As natural, the arrangement of the bottles is adjusted to the size of the climate control device.
Although rows are mentioned these could equally be columns, in other words the individual parts may be placed vertically, with no effect on the make up of the aforementioned device or on the conservation of the bottles.
In locations where the local climate allows, or when the cupboard is to be placed in a site which eliminates the need for the Peltier cell cooling system, it may be eliminated, provided the ambient temperature is stable and suitable for the wine to be contained.